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Common Name: saucer magnolia
Type: Tree
Family: Magnoliaceae
Zone: 4 to 9
Native Range: Garden origin
Height: 20 to 25 feet
Spread: 20 to 25 feet
Bloom Time: March
Bloom Color: White
Bloom Description: White flushed with purple
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Flowers: Showy Flowers, Fragrant Flowers
Fruit: Showy Fruit
Tolerates: Clay Soil
Uses: Flowering Tree
Culture
Best grown in moist, organically rich, well-drained loams in full sun to part shade. Generally intolerant of soil extremes (dry or wet). Intolerant of most urban pollutants. May take 4-5 years before first blooms appear. Best sited in a protected location, because early spring frosts can damage flowers.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Saucer magnolia is a deciduous hybrid magnolia (M. denudata x M. liliiflora). It is a small tree typically growing to 20-25’ tall with a rounded crown. It is often grown in a multi-trunked shrubby form. Fragrant saucer-shaped flowers (5-10” wide), typically with 9 petals, appear in early spring before the foliage (March in St. Louis). Flowers are usually white, flushed with purple on the outside. Sparse numbers of additional flowers may bloom sporadically in summer. Flowers give way to cone-like fruits that ripen to red in late summer, releasing individual coated, red seeds suspended on slender threads at maturity. Fruits are often absent on this hybrid. Oblong to obovate, medium green leaves (to 3-6” long). Foliage turns yellow to brown in fall. Genus name honors Pierre Magnol, French botanist (1638-1715). Specific epithet honors Chevalier Etienne Soulange-Bodin, Director of the French Royal Institute, who crossed this hybrid in the early 1800s. Saucer magnolia is perhaps the most popular deciduous magnolia in cultivation today, with a large number of hybrid cultivars now available in commerce featuring flowers in various shades of white, pink, rose, purple, magenta and burgundy.